What Now?

For graduation last year I received a little book, a graduation speech given by author Ann Patchett. The title: "What now?" I'll admit, when I got it I was skeptical, thinking it was just another self help type book, giving useless information, but it turns out that it is a fantastic quick read and something that inspires me each time I take a look at it. Patchett writes about the ever present question that people ask graduates--"What now?" What is it that you will do with you life now that you have received the great college diploma? What have these four years meant and what the heck is coming in the future for you? It turns out that this is an awkward question, which generally leads to more questions or a confused response...Well I suppose I'll get a job...But finding a job...well, that is a little tougher. It seems that graduation elicits a deep black abyss of questioning--what does one want their life to be? Patchett says "What now is always going to be a work in progress. What now was never what you think it's going to be." I couldn't agree more.

Last winter I decided to apply to the ELCA's Young Adults in Global Mission program. I wasn't having much luck with finding a "real" job. I was searching for something that would allow me to work with people, and a job that had some soul and purpose to it. This year long program offered all that. A chance to meet new people in a new place, do good work, and spend a year building relationships while helping to eliminate boundaries that tend to make us forget the humanness of the "other." I made it through the process of application, phone interviews, and finally the discernment weekend on the shores of Lake Geneva in Wisconsin. I was given my placement of "Slovakia/Hungary" and found out over a month later that "Hungary" was my destination.

I now look forward to what is ahead of me -- the opportunity to spend a year working with the Roma Gadje Dialogue Through Service organization (www.rgdts.net) and help to build community in rural Hungary.